train them all or not?

[Shaibana]

i am in a bit of a crisis.

so far my party always consist out of Cloud, Aeris and the one with the lowest lvl.
naturally Cloud and Aeris become alot more higher then the rest but i really cant play without Aeriss quick heal.

but the rest get too far behind.
so my question is: Should i drop some characters, so the other can get stronger faster?
or do i really need too lvl all the characters becaus im going to need a specific skill later in the game?

its already a crisis sort of solved becaus now i noticed i need Barret at Don Corneo's big bird (in Wutai) and Red XIII's Lunatic high comes in very handy in times.

but what does the rest have to offer?

p.s any tips to take down Don Corneo's bird? he easely takes me down with Aero3. moves like Seal evil doesnt seem to stunn him, but i have read that Barrets Mind Blow will kill his Aero... i have no materia at all :l curse you Yuffie! D:

also they say an item that casts Bolt3 on him wil do quite some dammage.. BUT my inventory is pretty much empty? did yuffie take those too?

[Ayen]

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.

I remember leveling up the three in my party at a time every two or three levels before each major boss fight. That's pretty much how I won. I can never remember who were in my party at a time or how consistent it was outside of Cloud, but you could probably get away with sticking with a certain group throughout most of it. I know Barrett will have to fight solo in one part of the game so it'll probably be a good idea to keep him strong.

I never fought Don Corneo's bird so I can't help there.

[Mirage]

You don't really need all the characters. Also, sidelined characters won't ever be horribly underleveled, as they get a percentage of the exp that the main party gets. If you play only with three specific characters until level 60, the rest of the crew will be around lv50 anyway. The only thing they'll lack is developed limit breaks, but that's not very time consuming to sort out if you read up on how to do it most efficiently.

[VeloZer0]

Just pick two you like and roll with them, They can all be used effectively so go with your favourites.

[Jiro]

From memory, the enemies on Da Chao (the mountain) drop items that allow you to cast high level magic when you use them. Also worth levelling up a little if you're having trouble, too; you can always rest in Godo's (Yuffie's dad) house.

[Mercen-X]

If you play only with three specific characters until level 60, the rest of the crew will be around lv50 anyway.

Unless the characters are dead. KO'd characters don't develop. Some challengers do this on purpose to fight the final boss at base level... waste-of-time.

Personally, my character selection tends to be random. I don't really have a favorite, battle-wise. If I could, I would choose a lead character other than Cloud, sh$ts and giggles... overall my character leveling tends toward sporadic.

[Cloudane]

I only bother for completion's sake and even then it seems easier to powerlevel the others in one go rather than swapping everyone back and forth and messing with their materia setups over and over.

If you're just playing the main game, you can pick whoever you enjoy the dialogue of and complete it no problem.

If you're wanting to beat the Emerald and Ruby Weapons then obviously you have to level up the people who are important for each but I seem to recall it's still mostly the materia setup that's important.

[Bubba]

Barret's Mindblow definitely comes in handy against Rapps. I always go into the fight with Cloud and Barret's Limit Breaks ready to fire too. You can buy items in Wutai that give you Fire 3 and Bolt 3 to use against him instead of your materia. It shouldn't take too long if you have those.

I don't tend to worry too much about certain characters being under-levelled. They level up reasonably well on their own anyway. I do level up Yuffie before Wutai though so I can leave there with Leviathan in tow.

[Shaibana]

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

no not in that way when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

[Ayen]

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

no not in that way when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

Oh. I don't remember that. Is that a side-quest or something?

[Shaibana]

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

no not in that way when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

Oh. I don't remember that. Is that a side-quest or something?

yes its optional

[Ayen]

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

no not in that way when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

Oh. I don't remember that. Is that a side-quest or something?

yes its optional

That's probably why, then. I either missed it or just don't remember.

[Jiro]

Definitely worth playing through, a cool little sidequest.

[Bubba]

Definitely worth playing through, a cool little sidequest.

It most certainly is.

I know a lot of people on here aren't too keen on the Wutai sidequest. I smurfing loved it. It's a great setting, definitely a challenge without materia and the Wutai music I thought was excellent.

[Ayen]

I'll keep it in mind for when I replay VII in April.